This research project is situated at the intersection of the field of information and communication sciences and media studies on one side, and that of science and technology studies (STS), on the other. Several contemporary studies on communication, culture and media describe digital environments (resulting from the convergence between computer science, audiovisual media and telecommunications) as privileged spaces for cultural creation by the many. <p>Moreover, in recent studies on the use of technological innovations, the user is now perceived as being at the centre of these devices while playing an increasingly active role in the innovation process. In the beginning, this body of work described the capacity of the lead user to identify correctly &quot;their needs&quot;, then to invent a satisfactory technical solution, and finally, to build and test a prototype in actual conditions of use. These studies have been prolonged by taking into account a broader base of users susceptible to contribute to the process of ascending innovation: Von Hippel has spoken - wrongly or not - of a &quot;democratization of innovation&quot;. Our approach on contributory uses on the Internet follows the same line as these works on the uses of innovation in digital environments.</p><p>In contemporary world, intentional human actions are predominantly implemented by technical devices, incorporated in programs and automatized technical systems, which undergo restraint from the technical dynamism that pervades and reconfigures the different dimensions of the social life. In a way, human actions, and certainly the ones most relevant in their social impact, are today predominantly co-actions. Therefore, social sciences cannot consider technical devices only in terms of efficiency and productivity. They should, on the one hand, understand current technical-human co-actions through their uses and mechanisms of production of unforeseen consequences and by-products and, on the other, seek to make clear the global human and historical meaning of these present processes.</p><p>Following a movement which began mid-20th century, especially after World War II, communication now comprehends not only the traditional media sector, but also telecommunications and computers. The convergence - through digitalization - of ICT with other technical and economic sectors is based in the incorporation of information and knowledge, the driving force of the commonly designated &quot;knowledge economy&quot;. This set contains logical and ideological traits inherent to the incorporated technical spheres and their close ties to industrial sectors involved in the new procedures of knowledge production and management. In journalism, the technological environment, in association with the renewed political economy imposing itself on news rooms has begun to interfere with its fundamental premises, that is, with how the &quot;interpretative community&quot; of journalists understands their role and their profession.</p><p>As a theoretical framework, our program will draw from: (1) approaches to lead users developed in sociology of use and economic sociology; (2) studies on the uses and digital cultures, from information and communication sciences and media studies; (3) &quot;the paradigm of the gift&quot; - whose origin lies in the anthropological work of Marcel Mauss - is essential to think the &quot;form of contribution&quot;. Because he opposes utilitarianism, which reduces the individual to the result of a rational calculation, the model of the gift seems more respectful of the wealth of motivation at the source of contributory use; (4) philosophical theories on recognition will also hold a significant position in our program; (5) a perspective inspired by the sociology of scientific knowledge, exploring the role of technological artifacts in building shared understandings of knowledge problems in interdisciplinary contexts.</p><p>To describe these practices of creation and exchange, our analysis framework will include four dimensions: (a) the notion of communication in social sciences; (b) the level of expertise which internet contributors have to display and their relation with professionals; (c) the inclusion of such contributory uses in the context of an economy of the immaterial and of a process of exchange non-rival goods.</p><p>a) The discussion on communication, focusing the sociological complexity of this concept, contrasting different traditions of communication as culture: the Great Community, communicational reason, hermeneutical communication, communication as argumentation.</p><p>b) The assessment of the quality and the actual degree of expertise of regular contributors, while at the same time examining the processes by which the figure of the &quot;expert&quot; can (re) emerge in the group of users, paying particular attention to the recognition of contributions and collaboration between users.</p><p>c) The description of an economy of attention, that of mass media, an economy of free content and transfer of value to facilities and services necessary for their collective use, highlighting the possible risks of instrumentalization of goodwill during the formation of groups that organize and manage the corpus. The owners of collaborative platforms currently have the right to use the information, which can be employed to increase market efficiency.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>